Youth and students hold indignation rally in front of Meycauyan, Bulacan police station after striking NutriAsia workers and their supporters were violently dispersed and arrested on July 30, 2018. Photo by Anakbayan, used with permission

Filipino activist groups have launched a boycott campaign against popular Filipino condiment company NutriAsia for violently dispersing the strike of its workers.

NutriAsia workers have been on strike for two months now in order to fight for the regularization of contractual or temporary workers. Endo contractualization refers to a short-term employment practice whereby the employee is terminated just before legally being eligible for regularized working status, thus enabling the employer to avoid paying employee regularization fees. NutriAsia hires over 1,400 workers but only 100 are regular employees with security of tenure, health insurance, and other work benefits. The majority of the workers face threats of illegal dismissal, underpaid overtime work amounting to 619 Philippine pesos (US$11.65) for 12 hours, salary deductions, repression of the right to organize unions, and substandard workplace conditions.

The strikers set up a picket line outside the NutriAsia factory gates in Marilao, Bulacan just 18 kilometers north of the capital, Manila.

The strike comes in the wake of President Rodrigo Duterte’s (so-far) failed promise of abolishing contractualization practices in the country, which has led to an explosion of labor struggles seeking the regularization of workers in big companies such as telcommunications company PLDT and fastfood giant Jollibee.

The Philippine Labor Ministry has ordered NutriAsia to regularize at least 900 of its workers. However, the company management says this is not possible because, according to them, these 900 workers are actually employees of a third-party agency and not in NutriAsia’s employ.

Nutriasia is famous for condiment products like ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, cooking oil, and fruit juices that have become a staple in Filipino households. Its founder Joselito D. Campos, Jr. is also the Chief Executive Officer of Del Monte Pacific Ltd which runs a global operation of pineapple plantations in the Philippines and a dozen factories in the USA, Mexico, and Venezuela.

July 30 dispersal

On July 30, NutriAsia workers and their supporters had finished conducting an ecumenical mass around 3 p.m. when the combined forces of the police and company security began hitting the crowd with clubs, anti-riot shields, and stones. Among those critically hurt was Leticia Retiza, an urban poor leader, who was seen in a now-viral photo with blood from her mouth spilling on her blouse and scarf. At least 20 were hurt during the dispersal.

The police arrested 19 strikers and supporters, including youth leaders and volunteers from the independent media outfit Altermidya. They were brought to the Meycauayan Police Station and charged with illegal assembly, alarm and scandal, and physical injuries. Meycauayan Town Police Chief Supt. Santos Mera, who ordered the dispersal of the NutriAsia workers’ picket, also claimed that they recovered guns and drugs from the arrested workers and their supporters.

Bulacan Provincial Police Chief Senior Supt. Chito Bersaluna took the cudgels for the police involved in the dispersal and filing of charges against the striking workers, saying it was the protesters who hurt the guards of NutriAsia. Bersaluna was chief of the Caloocan City police force before he was sacked after public outrage over the summary killing of teenager Kian Delos Santos last year. Police reported Kian was a drug dealer who fought back in a shootout with police but CCTV recording showed him being dragged by police before he was found dead the next day.

NutriAsia asserts that it was the workers and their supporters who started the “violence” by firing a gunshot in the air and throwing stones at police and security forces. However, videos and photosposted by advocates that have been supporting the striking workers undermine the statements made by the company.

The arrested strikers, their supporters, and journalists were released on August 1. The legal battle, however, is not yet resolved and the fate of the temporary workers is still uncertain.

Before the July 30 incident, the striking NutriAsia workers’ picket line had also been violently attacked last June 14, resulting in the arrest of 23 workers and their supporters, including a high school student.

#BoycottNutriAsia campaign

In response, some Filipino shoppers and netizens turned to social media expressing support for NutriAsia workers and calling for the boycott of NutriAsia products:

The violent dispersal of at the picket of striking NutriAsia workers only shows how this government treats its human resource. Instead of protecting our workers, this government became a tool for repressing the workers rights to protest. #BoycottNutriAsia

Capitalism is not being able to afford paying 1k workers proper wages and benefits, but can afford paying the police to beat up even grandmas, plant drugs on arrested unionists, arrest journalists, and burn workers’ belongings #SupportNutriAsiaWorkers#BoycottNutriAsia

About ICR

Intercultural Resources is a Centre for Research, Documentation & Intervention on issues related to the impacts and alternatives to destructive development. Social Movements and People’s Struggles are the two main areas of research and documentation ICR is engaged in. It is based in Delhi, India. Email: icrindia2016@gmail.com